Field effect transistors (FETs) are formed on silicon, or similar semiconductor substrates. A field effect transistor is usually formed with active areas such as two heavily doped, spaced apart regions of silicon, which are called a source and a drain. A gate structure is formed between the source and the drain, and operates to control the amount of electrical current which flows between them. When appropriate voltage is applied to the gate, an electrically conductive channel is formed under the gate, allowing current flow between the source and the drain. Active areas of adjacent transistors may be isolated from each other by the formation of a field oxide layer which acts as an insulator.
Part of the process of forming transistors involves the application of various layers of material. One such layer is utilized as an insulating layer between the gate and metal interconnects. Silane based layers have been used in the past, but do not fill tight spaces very well. Tetraethyloxysilicate (TEOS) based borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) film layers using TEOS is a silicon containing source gas which has also been used. Doping TEOS with boron and phosphorus through the addition of triethylborane (TEB) and triethylphosphate (TEPO) respectively, increases the film's ability to reflow and fill in tight spaces. Such BPSG layers, however, have been plagued with unacceptable fixed electrical charge, thus being unsuitable for use in semiconductor devices. This is characteristic of both plasma and non-plasma TEOS based BPSG deposition. However, due to the material's superior abilities to reflow at low temperatures and getter mobile species, it is highly desirable to adapt this material for use in semiconductor devices, particularly those employing certain silicide technologies which require lower temperatures to avoid agglomeration, such as those using titanium silicide.
Such layers are used as insulators between conductive layers. Excess fixed charge has an undesirable effect on adjacent layers. Excessive fixed charge for example can cause the silicon surface to invert under the field oxide, resulting in an undesirable channel for current to flow between two active areas that are isolated by the field oxide. This channel has a charge opposite to that of the substrate, which is also depleted of charge carriers in the region surrounding the inversion region. Thus, the excessive fixed charge creates or quickens the formation of the channel through which current flows, at undesired times. Excessive fixed charge also causes threshold voltage degradation in field transistors, causing premature and excessive leakage, in both n-type and p-type channel devices. The threshold voltage is the minimum voltage that must be applied for a current to flow in the channel between active regions. In semiconductor field transistor devices, it is paramount that the threshold voltage be maintained above a certain level to reduce leakage current between active regions.
There is a need to bring this fixed charge down to levels that do not induce a channel to form between active regions of field transistors formed in semiconductor substrates. There is also a need to provide an insulative layer having good reflow capabilities at low temperatures and which exhibit a low fixed charge.